A New Life
by 99x9RedRoses
Summary: The war is over, we won. Baird has started a new and different life as a civilan. Trouble follows  because trouble always follows  in the form of a traumatized young woman.
1. Chapter 1

Just something I wrote based on a dream, if people like it I will continue, if not…meh.

I don't own Gears of War

Chapter 1

Baird hunched over a little more in reflex to the rain. It was dangerous enough to be out on the streets at night but being out in the rain at night was asking for trouble. It doesn't matter; Baird thought irritably, he had practically fought off the entire locus horde in his time. A couple of overconfident stranded would be nothing. HHH He almost wished they would try something. They probably would have but for the rain, most of them were more obliged to spend rainy nights drinking then standing around in the cold waiting for someone to mug. Only the truly crazy ones were willing to risk their health on such a night and those, Baird supposed, were the ones he should have been looking out for.

As he walked, Baird reflected on the events that had brought him to his current situation. The war had ended. Delta squad, as usual, had brought it about. Then began the rebuilding, first on Vectes then slowly they had migrated back to the main land. Baird had helped with the mechanical branch of the rebuilding during his time in the COG but had received an honorable discharge after the incident with some local stranded. Hey, he didn't start it but he finished it, and apparently Prescott had deemed that grounds for discharge for some stupid reason. So he bid the rest of delta adieu and had headed out to the main land to help rebuild the first real city since the war had ended. His less than affectionate feelings for the cog quickly faded as he found himself the owner of his very own company.

He had stared out fixing farming equipment in exchange for fresh food. Then a kid who was not quite as talented as him had asked to get in on Baird's newly formed business. Although he preferred to work alone Baird found that if he got more done, he got paid more. So he 'hired' the kid and split whatever they got 50/50. Word got around and anyone with any kind of mechanical ability was begging to join Baird. Pretty soon he had his very own legion of flying monkeys that he was training to be mechanics. Besides having fresh food some of the other benefits of working under Baird were protection and security. All the farmers trusted Baird, despite his temper he got the job done and didn't cause trouble. Therefore anyone working for him was trustworthy until proved otherwise. The farmers protected anyone who worked for Baird, and that was a good thing because the farmers were easily the most well armed men and women short of gears themselves. As for security, as long as the flying monkeys did what they were told and didn't cause any trouble they were assured employment by Baird who frankly didn't care enough to fire them. They all did the work, they all got paid, simple as that.

Baird didn't know much about his employees, he certainly didn't know where they lived, but he knew where the fist kid, June, lived, in Baird's house. The kid had been homeless so Baird offered to let June live with him. Baird had a little house which he had refurbished himself for the most part and then had fortified it with various explosive traps, just on general principle. What Baird hadn't known when he agreed to let June live with him was that June had two younger siblings a ten year old boy named Jacob and an eight year old girl named Kaylee. Baird didn't have much experience with kids and he had heard both good and bad things about them, but he found that he liked these kids. They were helpful, kept the house clean, they fed themselves, and they didn't fight, ever. Baird supped that was a trait picked up from having to survive the last years of the war.

Baird smiled as he thought about his new adopted family, but movement ahead of him brought him out of his musing. Instinctively he pressed up against the wall and crept forward. Out of an ally a pale figure sprang and fell flat on the concrete. It was a woman, he realized, it had to be. She was dragged back into the ally, a muffled cry escaping her. Baird moved silently forward. He peeked around the corner to assess the situation. The woman, he found was pinned on the ground by a large man, and to his horror he realized she was completely naked. Without another thought Baird bounded into the ally and pulled the man off her and threw him against the wall. The man recovered quickly and jumped up into a fighting stance. So Baird kicked him in he exposed tender area. The man crumpled but with a display of incredible resilience rolled over to the mouth of the ally and stood up.

"She's mine you freak. Bought and paid for!" the man cried in a high pitched voice. Baird growled menacingly and started at the man fully intending to punch his head off. To his credit the man sprinted off. Baird could have and would have caught the man and beat him to death but he couldn't leave the woman. He turned back to the ally and found the woman pressed up against a wall with her knees pulled up against her chest. Baird knelt next to her not sure exactly what to do. She was sobbing, though completely silent her body shook with sobs.

"Hey," Baird said softly, her head snapped up her eyes wide with fear. She began to tremble violently as she looked at him.

"I'm not going to hurt you," He assured her but she wasn't convinced. Baird sighed, she was seriously traumatized and there was nothing he could say that would help her. So he pulled off his heavy coat and wrapped her in it, she made no attempt to resist. Baird then scooped her up and carried her the rest of the way to his house.

The door was locked, as usual, and he had no way to reach them with the girl in his arms. He opted to knock on the door with his foot.

"It's me, open up!" he called after a few seconds the lock clicked and a little girl peered out at him from the door way.

"Birdy!" Kaylee said excitedly, standing aside to let him in. "What took you so long? Who is that?"

"I don't know who she is, do me a favor and get me a couple of towels." He instructed. The little girl ran off as Jacob and June, who was almost sixteen, came into the living room from the kitchen.

"Baird, what's going on?" June asked.

"I'll tell you in a minute," Baird replied irritably carrying the girl into his room.

Kaylee came in after him and he instructed her to place the towels on the bed and then told her to get out. He wanted to give the girl as much privacy as he could. At some point she had either fallen asleep or more likely passed out from fear. Baird carefully placed her on the towels and then used another one to dry her off as best as he could. When he was finished he pulled the blankets over her and carefully took of his heavy wet jacket. He then pulled the wet towels out from under her and left the girl to sleep in peace.

After dumping the towels and his jacket in the shower to dry he trudged into the living room and flopped down on the couch. Kaylee climbed into his lap her usually happy face twisted with concern. The two boys sat on the floor playing cards.

"who is she Birdy?" A smile tugged at Baird's mouth, if anyone else had called him birdy he would have punched them.

"I don't know" He said tiredly.

"did you save her life?"

"yeah, I guess I did" he decided, he didn't know if the man had actually intended to kill her.

"Is she going to be alright?"

"I don't know."

"What happed?" June asked. Baird gave him a 'tell you later' look.

"June, think you could lend her some clothes?" Baird asked. June nodded, he was defiantly taller than the girl but not as tall as Baird.

"Alright then, its late, go to bed." He ordered. The boys muttered good night. Kaylee kissed him good night, making Baird blink in surprise, and followed her brothers into their room. Baird groaned and fell back onto the couch. Reaching up he flipped off the light switch. It had been a long day and finding the girl had really topped it off. He quickly fell into a deep peaceful sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Baird sipped his coffee in silence. It was five in the morning and he and June were the only ones awake. They were getting ready to start the work day as usual but Baird wasn't so sure that was a good idea.

"I can't just leave her here. I don't know anything about her and I don't want her to run off before I can get a chance to find out." Baird said quietly.

June shrugged, "So stay home today, I can handle being the boss for a day."

Baird smirked, "You'd like that wouldn't you. Trying to take over the company already?"

"You know it, I don't like the way you run things. I think I can do a better job."

"Just keep telling yourself that." Baird muttered, "So what am I going to do?"

They thought in silence for a few minutes. Finally June came up with a solution.

"She probably won't wake up for a while, why don't you come to work until noon then you can come back and check on her."

"What if she wakes up before then?"

"Kaylee and Jacob will watch her, we'll leave them a note."

Baird still didn't like the plan; they didn't know anything about the girl. For all they knew she could wake up and try to kill the kids. Baird ran this by June.

"They'll be fine, they've faced worse things." June said. Baird sighed exasperatedly.

"Fine, let's go." He said getting up from the kitchen table.

Baird, June and a few others were working on one of the larger farms that day owned by a ruthless man who might have been a mob boss in the old Sera. He fed most the population on the main land and he was Baird's number one customer. Baird had planned a big project for his crew that day. They were installing a new and improved irrigation system. Baird had hoped to completely oversee the whole project but he found that starting the project wasn't exacting anymore. From the moment they had arrived on the farm to find Baird's handpicked crew waiting for them Baird was completely distracted by the events at home. Thankfully the crew was competent enough to do the job with little instructions. Baird had required them to memorize the plan and had spent days drilling them on solutions to various scenarios. It had almost felt like he was a gear again.

Baird kept running various scenarios through of what could have been happening at home while he worked. He vaguely hoped it wasn't that obvious that he wasn't paying any attention to what he was doing but he couldn't help but think of the girl waking up and violently slaughtering the two kids left at home. They were safe enough from enemies that would try to get into the house, but what if Baird had brought the enemy safely inside? Baird growled at the parts he was trying to assemble making the guys who were working near him to edge away from their choleric boss. Life was so much simpler when he didn't have anyone's lives under his care. Of course as a gear he had had plenty of lives in his hands, but most of those lives could take care of themselves.

By them time noon rolled around Baird was nearly a basket case with worry and curiosity. He had to know if the kids were alright and he wanted to talk to the girl. After explaining to the crew that he had to leave he found June and handed him a headset.

"Put this on; only use it if you absolutely have to. I'm not sure how secure it is." He instructed. June nodded.

"Don't worry, you're not much help today anyway," June said, so it was obvious Baird thought. Baird headed home more comfortable with leaving June in charge of their project than he was with leaving the kids with a stranger, even if that stranger had been seriously abused. No, especially because she had been abused.

All was quiet at the front door which was neither a good nor a bad sign. Baird unlocked the door and stepped into the living room. Kaylee and Jacob sat of the carpet of the living room and didn't look up. They were playing with Jacob's plastic toy soldiers and didn't.

"What are you doing back so early?" Jacob said without looking up.

"Came to check on you guys and the girl, Is she awake?"

"Yeah," Kaylee said. "She was awake when I checked on her this morning and left her June's clothes. She was too scared to get out of bed and didn't want anything to eat or drink. I checked on her about an hour ago and she got dressed though."

Baird breathed a sigh of relief, of course there had been nothing to worry about he told himself condescendingly. He could just go back to work, this could wait until later. Nah, he thought, this was way more interesting. Kaylee smiled at him as he walked past her to his room. He was happy she was safe. Quietly opening his door, Baird found the girl lying motionless on the bed with her back to him. Baird crept up and looked over her at her face. Her eyes were open and staring at the wall. She glanced up at him slightly, maybe expecting Kaylee, and freaked out. With a squeak she bolted up right and scrambled back as far away from him as she could. Luckily the bed was up against the wall so she didn't fall off. She sat with her knees pulled up against her chest, trembling. Her wide blue eyes never left him as he examined her. Her face was bruised and cut, someone had obviously hit her, a lot. Her eyes had bruises around them but since they were not swollen he could tell it had been a few days ago. There were dark clumps in her matted dirty blond hair, blood. The rest of her body was covered by Junes clothes except for her hands which didn't look good. Baird sat down on the bed near here but not too close.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he started she didn't look convinced.

"What's your name?" She didn't answer and she didn't seem to have any intention to talk to him so he gave up trying. Instead he scooted up to her to get a better look at her injuries. She convulsively backed away but the wall was blocking her retreat.

"I'm not going to hurt you" he repeated, and took one of her hands. She didn't try to stop him but he could feel the tension in her arm. Her hand was scabbed and there was blood under her nails. There were deep even cuts all around her wrist, most likely from being handcuffed. He checked her other hand. No blood, no marks on her wrist. That was strange.

"What happened to you?" He muttered she buried her head in her knees in response.

"Well I know what happened. I mean what have you been going through? Who did this to you?" She didn't answer but licked her dry lips nervously. Baird got up and went into the kitchen and got her a large glass of water.

"Here," He said holding the cup out to her.

She didn't take it and seemed genuinely frightened at the site of it.

"I didn't poison it." He said annoyed and frustrated with her behavior. Then he had a sudden realization. "I didn't drug it either. Now drink it before you die of dehydration."

She jumped a little at his tone and took the drink taking a hesitant sip. Either she deicide it wasn't drugged or poisoned or she just didn't care because she started gulping it down as fast as she could. When she was finished Baird took the cup and refilled it. This time he put ice to keep her from drinking it so fast so she didn't make herself sick. It didn't really work. When she was finished Baird looked at her trying to decide what to do next. It was probably too much to try and get her to eat something he decided. She looked really tired too.

"Alright," He muttered standing up, she eyed him suspiciously.

"Rest," he ordered. She didn't move from her position against the wall. Well Baird wasn't about to force her to lie down so with a huff he left her in peace. As he shut the door quietly behind him Kaylee scampered up to him and threw her arms around his legs.

"There's a man at the door!" She whispered urgently. "Come see!" Baird pried her off his legs and made his way to the front door. He checked through the window next to the door to see who it was. The man was no one he knew but he had a pretty good idea what he wanted. Baird opened the door.

"Yeah," He said in greeting.

"Hi, my name is William; I was told that if I wanted a job as a mechanic you were the guy to go to." The man said with a cocky air.

"That's right." Baird said trying to sound like he was in charge. He didn't need some kid who thought he was better than Baird as an employee because, Baird knew, he wasn't. The kid took the hint because he visibly humbled himself.

"Well I was hoping you would hire me." He said. Baird studied William. He was roughly as tall as Baird but much scrawnier. His dull brown hair was down to his shoulders and fanned out around his head. He just didn't look like the mechanical type, but Baird decided he would give the kid a chance. He needed another flying monkey anyway.

"Alright,' Baird replied "you know where my work shop is right?" William nodded.

"Meet me there tomorrow at 5:30 AM, for your Interview."

"I will," He replied excitedly. He and Baird shook hands and William left.

Baird spent the rest of the day playing cards with Jacob and Kaylee, and tinkering with various projects. June got home just in time for dinner. He excitedly explained every miniscule detail of what had happened after Baird left.

"Alright, I get it. You're a good leader when things are going smoothly." Baird commended agitatedly.

"Yeah, I'm just glad nothing went wrong! I don't know what I would have done." June said grinning.

"Well you'll get another chance to screw up tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Because I'm interviewing a new employee," Baird said.

"Oh, ok cool! So I get another chance to try and take over then!" June said happily.

"Shut up." Baird smacked lightly.

Baird slept on the couch again that night. He wasn't as exhausted as he usually was so it wasn't as easy for him to fall asleep. Just as he was drifting off a piercing scream came from his room.

Well here we are at chapter 2. Cool. I'm hoping for a few more reviews but to those who reviewed already, thanks. I will keep writing this as long as a few people want me to. Or until it is finished or I get bored…But if you review I'm more likely to not get bored…just saying. Tell me what you think.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Years of war experience dictated Baird's response to the cry coming from his room. Executing a half roll, half leap from the couch that landed him on his feet he tore through the house to his room in a matter of seconds. He had already formulated several ways to strike the locus that he automatically assumed were the cause of the problem in the time it took him to kick his door open. It took him two seconds to assess the situation before him.

The girl was cowering in a corner and a slim dark figure was approaching her with something in hand which Baird couldn't distinguish. The intruder barely had time to look at Baird before the livid blond veteran charged at him like a bull and sent him flying against the wall. Baird aimed a kick at the intruders head but the guy was fast and evaded the blow by rolling out of the way. Baird didn't miss a beat though, with a quick shift he changed his momentum and fired out kick with the other leg. With a satisfying crack Baird's foot collided with the intruder's rib cage. To his credit this didn't stop the intruder. Before Baird could get his hands on the guy's throat he leapt up, landed a kick into Baird's chin, and rolled out the open window from which he had entered and took off running. Baird vaulted out the window and sprinted after the intruder. Whoever it was had experience running through obstacles. Baird pursued him over fences, down allies, around parked cars and even over a low roof top before he lost him. Baird stood panting on the roof scanning the area for signs of his quarry but the man had completely eluded him.

Cursing, Baird jogged back home to make sure everyone was ok. _He got in the back friggen window! _Baird thought angrily, _how did I miss that! _He made a mental note to meticulously examine all his defenses until he found the hole that night. Stomping up to the front door he angrily twisted the door knob only to find it locked. He was tempted to just kick in the door but his mechanical subconscious warned him that he didn't have time to fix it.

"It's me, open up!" He yelled pounding his fist on the door. A few seconds later the lock clicked and Jacob let the fuming blond in. Jacob new that the best thing to do was to stay out of Baird's way when he was upset and so jumped aside as Baird slammed the door behind him. In his room Baird found June leaning up against the window keeping a careful eye on his sister as she tried to comfort the sobbing girl. Baird stood in the door way watching the scene while he calmed himself down. Once he no longer felt like he might punch a hole in the wall he approached the pair and knelt down next to Kaylee. The girl watched him with wide fearful eyes.

"It's going to be ok," Kaylee said kindly, "Birdy won't let anyone hurt you, will you Birdy?" Baird nodded absently. He had absolutely no idea how to deal with the girl. If it had been Cole or some other war buddy he would have just sat there with them comforting with his presence but he knew that wouldn't be a comfort to the young woman.

"Your safe here, right Birdy?" Kaylee said continued she nudged Baird brining him out of his brooding.

"Yeah, that's never going to happen again," Baird promise, fresh tears welled up in her eyes.

"What'd I say?" He asked taken aback then out of nowhere she leapt at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Baird froze completely stunned, that was the very last thing he expected. After a moment the shock wore off and he gently wrapped his arms around her and gently rubbed her back in what he hoped was a comforting touch. Baird glanced at Kaylee who smiled encouragingly, so Baird held her silently while she sobbed into his shoulder. Though he was way out of his comfort zone Baird found that it was easy to just sit there holding her. After a few minutes her sobs died away and her breathing slowed until she had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He gently lifted her and placed her on his bed and turned around to find Kaylee smiling at him.

"What are you smiling about?" He muttered halfheartedly.

"You are so nice!" she said happily taking his large hand in her small one.

"Thanks now go to bed." He ordered, she smiled went back to bed. Baird sighed and turned to June who had been watching the whole scene from his place at the window. Baird motioned him out of the room.

"So I'm guessing you didn't catch him." June said pointedly when they were in the living room. Baird shook his head.

"No, he's still out there, but he won't be getting back in here if I have anything to say about it, and I do." Baird said confidently.

"How did he even get in?" June wondered.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out tonight." Baird turned and stalked out to the back yard, June followed him. Baird tried to tell June to go to bed but the kid had picked up Baird's stubbornness so the two examined the yard together. The only real entrance to the back yard was the door from the house or Baird's window. The Yard was fenced in by a sturdy concrete wall Baird had rebuilt from the original brick wall. The whole thing was lined with barbed wire and hotwire including the roof so the intruder couldn't have climbed over the roof or any part of the fence without getting cut up and shocked. The only other way out besides through the house was through a heavy door that only opened from the inside through which Baird had chased out the intruder. He examined that first while June checked the hot wire. Baird concluded that the intruder did not come in through the door.

"Hot wire's on; I don't think he climbed over the wall." June reported.

"Me neither," Baird agreed.

"Maybe he dropped in from a raven!" June suggested excitedly.

"No we would have heard that," Baird said.

"Oh, yeah I guess." They stood in silence looking around the yard. A dark patch on the ground caught Baird's eye.

"Oh no," he muttered jogging up the dark patch. It was a hole, just big enough for a skinny man to slip through. Baird cursed.

"Spent a whole war paranoid about holes in ground but the second it ends suddenly I completely forget about it." Baird ranted.

"Come on let's get this filled in, then we can think of something to keep this from happening again." June suggested.

"Yeah, let's do that." Baird muttered already configuring solutions in his head.

Baird had sent June in when they were done with fortifying the ground around the fence but he had stayed out the rest of the night meticulously inspecting every inch of the house for any other possible way an intruder could get in. As the sun rose he was satisfied that there was no way anyone could get into the house. Tired and sweaty and trudged into the kitchen and splashed cold water of his face from the sink and then held his mouth open under the faucet gulping down the cool water. There was probably all kinds crap in the water and he had no way to filter it but hey, he'd drunk worse.

At the kitchen table he was mildly surprised to find the girl sitting there eating scrambled eggs with the rest of the crew. Grabbing a plate from the counter Baird helped himself to the food all the while scrutinizing the young woman.

"You know," he said between bites. "I can't keep calling you _the girl_ in my head; you have to tell me your name." She didn't answer and looked shyly at her plate.

"Her name is Amy." Kaylee chimed.

"Really, how did you know that?" Baird asked.

"She told me this morning." Kaylee said and then scooted up to him and whispered in his ear, her little hand blocking her mouth from view. "She doesn't like to talk to boys, ok?"

"Ok" Baird shrugged; he was starting to like this girl. If she wouldn't talk to him then she wouldn't nag him. Baird finished his eggs just as his watch alarm started going off.

"Back to it," June said getting up. Baird handed June his plate and stood up. He was not looking forward to the day. He was tired and dirty and on edge about leaving the kids at home after last night. They didn't seem too perturbed about it though he guessed they trusted that he had fixed everything and that it wouldn't be happening again. Though he had done his best to patch all the holes in his defense system Baird was still paranoid that someone would find a way past them. Then again it was probably that paranoia that had kept him alive throughout the war. Cover all the bases. He had to go to work though, they had to eat and that reminded him.

"Hey June, make sure you pick up the check." Baird instructed his assistant.

"Roger that." June acknowledged, by check Baird of course meant their portion of the goods that Baird's clients had offered them.

"Kaylee, make sure Amy takes a shower, she looks awful," Baird said. She really did look terrible. Kaylee nodded.

"We need to go boss man." June remained, slipping his shoes on.

"_I know that_," Baird said condescendingly, there was one more base he had to cover. "Jacob come here."

Jacob followed Baird into his bedroom and waited while Baird dug around under his bed. Finding what he was looking for Baird straitened up. He held a pistol in his hand Jacobs eyes got wide.

"Just in case," Baird said seriously. "If you have to use it, you better use it, got it?" The boy nodded. "Good," he handed him the pistol and told him to put it somewhere near by wherever he was going to be. Feeling like he'd done all he could Baird followed June out of the house.

Baird arrived at his workshop to find William waiting for him.

"So you decided to show up?" Baird asked a devious tone in his voice, "Alright then, let's get started."

Baird's idea of an interview consisted of having the perspective employee fix a bunch of tools and other things Baird and his team had broken while shooting off random questions about the persons background, family history, the part he played in the war, and any other random question Baird could think of in an attempt to judge whether or not the man was sane. Well sane enough. When he ran out of questions Baird began criticizing everything William was doing. By lunch Baird was sure he had quashed all hope William had of getting the job, the kid did not look happy Baird noted smugly.

"Alright, I think I've seen enough, go home kid."

William huffed exasperated. Baird could tell he was thinking of a few choice words for Baird.

"Report back tomorrow at 5 am for your assignment." Baird added before the kid could sabotage his chance. The most classic look of surprise graced William's features. Baird wished he had a camera.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really, now get out of here before I change my mind."

"Yes sir!" William snapped and he hurried out of the small shop.

"Sir?" Baird muttered shaking his head, what an idiot.

Baird arrived on the farm June was in charge of just in time to join them for lunch.

"So how did the interview go?" June asked casually, Baird looked around at the rest of the crew that were trying to hide the fact that they were listening intently.

"Awful, he sucked. I wouldn't trust the guy to fix his own breakfast." Baird complained loudly to the general laughs of approval from the crew.

"You hired him didn't you?" June said pointedly.

"Yep."

"Great."

It was a well know ritual that they went through every time Baird hired someone new. Baird didn't find it that funny. Anyone who knew the real Baird knew that he complained about everything and would have told him to just shut up and eat. But these guys just thought it was some sort of hazing. He wondered what these guys would think if they saw the real him. Even June didn't know how whiny Baird really was. He guessed it was because he was their boss and mentor; they listened to everything he said and took his criticism to heart. It was hard to complain to people who actually wanted to listen to it and do something about it. It just wasn't the same if Fenix wasn't telling him to shut up and fix it.

Baird and June trudged home carrying bags of food and other things that they had gotten in payment from various clients. Baird was relieved to find that all was well at home; Jacob and Kaylee were playing a very elaborate version of speed with two decks of cards. Amy was sitting on the couch watching. She jumped when they came in and shied away instinctually as they passed by. Kaylee jumped up to help June put away the food, she loved getting groceries.

Baird sat down on the couch next to Amy. She scooted as far from him as possible. Baird shrugged, if she was going to be living in his house then she should get use to being in close proximity to him anyway. Baird watched as Kaylee and Jacob finished their game, then June played winner, then they played extreme go-fish and another card game they had all made up. Baird decided the war had given people too much time to play cards. Eventually Baird put a stop to the games and insisted they all go to bed.

"You too," Baird insisted when Amy didn't move right away. She looked in the direction of his room and visibly flinched.

"You slept in there the last two nights." Baird complained, but then he remembered what had happened last night. "Alright, you can sleep out here."

He found her a blanket and pillow and turned off the light for her before heading to the bathroom for a quick shower. He flopped into bed exhausted as usual and was asleep in seconds.

Ah chapter 3, we have arrived. Now I think I'm going to try and hold out for a few more reviews. If you're reading this and are too lazy to review then I can sympathize, but seriously, review.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Well so much for holding out for a few more reviews. Come on guys give me some feed back! I didn't write this for a while because I forgot where I was going with it but now I remembered so I have to write it before I forget.

The rain poured down and created little streams of red and brown as the blood flowed over the muddy ground. Baird and his small gang of mechanics stood over the gruesome sight of their fallen comrade. They had finally finished the irrigation project along with various other improvements that Baird had entrusted to his not so gifted employees. Baird estimated that the system wouldn't need maintenance for at least half a year and he wasn't going to start and new projects for at least two weeks. It had just started to rain as Baird and the rest of his team were headed home to enjoy the rest of the day and the next day off. Baird was working out the maintenance schedule in his head when they had stumbled onto the gruesome sight.

"Awe man it's Shawn." One of the guys said. Baird knelt down next to the lifeless body. The kid was lying face down in the mud. Baird rolled him onto his back; lifeless blue eyes stared up at the sky. Most likely cause of death, Baird noted the gaping hole in his chest. It was messy; whoever had stabbed him didn't know how to use a knife. So it was safe to say it wasn't some AWOL gear. Baird looked at the shocked faces of his team. They had all been under his watchful eye for the past hour, he would have noticed if any of them had wandered off to murder someone. So that meant that it was either a crazy lunatic, probably stranded, or it was one of the other three mechanics that Baird had sent off on odd jobs around the farm, all of which had just shown up.

Baird shook his head, it wasn't one of them. They wouldn't have stuck around.

"Alright," Baird said standing up, "does anyone know where he lives?"

"I do," William said "He lives with his girl friend over by the river, I'll show you."

Baird nodded, "June, go tell the farmer, he'll arrange for someone to pick up the body. The rest of you go home, let's go Will." There was nothing any of the guys could do. There were laws about touching dead bodies no matter how recent or how well you knew the guy, all in the interest in curbing disease. If Baird was still a gear then he would have been obligated to take care of it. He guessed that was one plus of getting kicked out.

"So what are you going to tell his girl friend" William asked in an attempt to engage his surly boss in conversation. Baird just shrugged.

"Don't you have some company policy on this kind of thing?" He continued.

"Honestly it's never come up." Baird said.

"That's unusual in this day and age."

"Yep," Baird said.

They didn't speak for the rest of the walk. By the end of the task Baird was glad to have William along. The girl friend took it pretty hard and thankfully it was William she wanted to hug it out with. William offered to stay with her and make sure she was ok so that Baird didn't have to. Baird left the house gratefully and headed home, he ran into June along the way.

"It's all taken care of," June informed him. "So who do you think it was?"

"Probably just some stranded trying to make a point that they can do whatever they want wherever they want."

"You don't think it was any of the crew?" Baird gave him a sidelong glance, he wondered if the rest of the crew thought it was one of their own."

"No, I don't, do you?"

"I know those guys pretty well and I don't think it could be any of them, but you can't really know a person these days."

"Anyone in particular?"

"Well," June hesitated Baird arched and eyebrow. "I don't really know that Will guy. I mean it could be just a complete coincidence that he shows up and this happens but there's something unsettling about him." Baird grunted, he hadn't noticed anything off about William and though he didn't make the effort to really get to know any of his employees he usually could tell when someone was crazy. He had actually turned down several people who wanted a job on account of they were completely insane. Still Baird would keep an eye on William.

Baird was somewhat shocked to find a large beat up truck in his driveway.

"Whose is that?" June asked.

"I don't know," Baird replied, "but I have a hunch."

He opened the front door to find Jacob animatedly telling a story to a familiar grey haired woman on whose lap Kaylee was sitting.

"There's granny's boy!" Bernie Mataki said happily when she noticed Baird and June.

"What are you doing here?" Baird said aggravation mixed with surprise.

"That's no way to great your granny." She chided.

"Blow me." Baird said firmly, he stood rigidly just inside the door way, June moved in and introduced himself to the smiling old woman.

"It's good to meet you June, you can call me granny. Why didn't you tell me you finally got around to making me some grandkids? I would have come sooner." She asked Baird.

"I didn't" He growled red faced. June watched with amusement, he had never seen anyone dismantle his boss and mentor like this. Baird's face was red, either from anger or embarrassment June couldn't tell but June had never seen him look so immature.

"Well where ever they came from hopefully they won't grow up to be anything like you but I guess if you're raising them then that's the most likely outcome. That's another thing, I don't think you're really qualified to raise kids; maybe I should have Dom come over and give you some pointers. I think you'll be ok with the boys but this poor little girl doesn't stand and chance, after all you don't know the first thing about women." June, Jacob, and Kaylee were all laughing uproariously and Baird looked like he was about to stab someone. Baird took a deep breath; _just ignore her_ he told himself. _How did she even get in here?_ He wondered. Baird took his own advice as Bernie began telling the kids about some story about him and stalked into the kitchen for a drink. He decided to indulge in a beer. It wasn't that the drink was particularly hard to come by; it was that his clients were reluctant to include it as payment. They didn't want a bunch of drunks messing with their equipment and Baird tended to agree with them.

Realizing that a member of his house seemed to be missing Baird went in search of Amy. First he grabbed another beer out the fridge and wordlessly handed it to Bernie as he walked by.

"Oh, you're such a good boy." She said in thanks, Baird rolled his eyes and said nothing. He checked his room first but it was empty so logically she had to be in the kids' room. He looked but it also appeared to be empty.

"Kaylee!" he called "where…?"

"She's in my room." Kaylee called knowing what he wanted.

"No she isn't." He called.

Kaylee sighed and slid off of her new granny's lap. Perplexed, Bernie followed the little girl into her room.

"Hmmmm" Kaylee looked around then she walked around her bed to a space between it and the window and frowned. Baird moved Kaylee out of the way and crouched down in her place. Amy was curled up with her back against the wall with her arms around her knees. Her face was buried in her knees. Baird sighed, at a loss. Bernie bent over Baird to get a closer look at the girl and sighed too. She quietly ushered Kaylee out of the room and shut the door.

"Alright Baird, what happened?" she asked sitting down on the bed Baird sat down next to her. He told her the whole story from finding her in the ally to the incident in his room. Bernie listened grimly when he was finished she shook her head sadly.

"This isn't good."

"Brilliant deduction captain obvious," Baird muttered sarcastically.

"You don't understand. This could be a lot more than just rape."

Baird nodded solemnly.

"I'll look into it while I'm here, in the mean time, get out."

"Yeah why are you here?" Baird asked standing up

"Cog Business," she replied simply crouching down in front of the girl.

"No I mean why you are here? In my house, how did you find me?"

"Oh it was easy, I just asked if anyone knew of a really obnoxious blond mechanic, they knew you by name."

"How did you get in, the kids aren't suppose to open the door."

"I picked the lock, scared them a bit but I explained everything to them. They're good kids." Baird nodded satisfied and left her with the girl.

Amy looked up into the old lady's face, she smiled kindly at her and Amy felt better.

"Come here honey," Bernie said lifting the girl up onto the bed, "I know what you're going through, I still have flash back some times."

Bernie held the girl comfortingly as she told her own story.

"I hate this." The girl whispered.

"I know, but don't you worry, Baird will take care of you, he's a good boy for the most part and he's fun to irritate." Amy laughed a little.

"Come on, I smell something nice lets go eat." The girl nodded and followed Bernie out of the room.

I'm not sure I like this chapter, but I guess it's ok, I'm not going to update for a while again because I have more pressing matters but hopefully it won't take as long as this update. Also, thanks to gears of war 3 this certain aspects of this story are now incorrect, however I plan to continue as planned despite this.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Baird watched Amy closely at dinner. He didn't know what Bernie had told her or what she meant by "a lot more than just rape" but he got a nauseating twist in his stomach whenever he considered it. Whatever Bernie had said or done, it did the trick. Amy was still quiet and shy but she was definitely more relaxed. She didn't even flinch when he reached across her, rudely as Bernie pointed out, to get the bowl of stir fry June and Jacob had whipped together. She even smiled at Bernie's story about him which he suspected Cole had told her.

"You're awfully quiet, Blondie." Bernie commented after the laughter had died down.

"Yeah, I was tuning you out." He muttered distractedly.

"You mean you finally learned how to do that?" Bernie broke out into a huge grin "I guess having kids has taught you something. Well done, children! You have accomplished what few grown men had dared to dream!"

Baird rolled his eyes at the chorus of thank-you's from the traitorous kids. After dinner Kaylee managed to coax Amy out into the back yard, it was the first time the girl had been outside since she had arrived. June was teaching Jacob; they had their own little home school system that Baird was content to leave them to. That left him and Bernie to clean up the dishes.

"You've become a real luminary around here. Seems you're responsible for just about every technological feat accomplished." Bernie said as she dried. Baird snorted at the wording. It was a technological resurrection at best, but they were still a century behind.

"I heard you set up the running water in almost the whole town."

"Apparently, they don't pay me enough." He muttered snidely.

"What do you mean?"

"Yeah I set up the running water. When I got here the only person who had running water was the mayor, or leader, or god king pharaoh, whatever he's calling himself. He wasn't interesting in sharing with the rest of the town so I set up my own system. When he found out he wanted me to set up the whole town. So I did and you know what thanks I get? He sent me a water bill! A frigging water bill!"

"Can he even do that?" Bernie asked incredulously.

"Apparently, because it's his well or something." Baird said in his mocking whiny tone. "So you know what I did? I turned off his water. No one could figure out how I did it or how to turn it back on. They threatened to turn off my water but they couldn't figure out how."

"You're right, they don't pay you enough."

"Yeah, but they need me, and they know it, and they hate it, and that's almost satisfying enough. Almost."

"Well, you'll be happy to hear that the COG greatly regrets kicking you out."

"That's does make me happy. Are you here to beg me to come back?"

"No, but when they come to their senses I will happily refuse to do it and make them come and beg on their knees."

Baird smirked.

"I'd like that, I'd really like that."

"It's a really good thing you're doing, taking care of those kids. Most kids don't stand a chance these days if they don't have someone to protect them - that's actually why I'm here."

"Oh really?" Baird had been reluctant to bring that up, he really didn't want to see the look on Bernie's face if she had to tell him that she couldn't tell civvies. He would never admit it but he missed being a gear.

"Yeah, some gang has been targeting kids. At first we thought they were recruiting, or using them to get their parents to join, but it doesn't add up any more. They're just slaughtering them." Bernie paused. She had to close her eyes and take a few deep breathes. "It's been pretty gruesome. For some reason they don't appear to be active in this town. I'm here to find out why."

There was a muffled thunk as the plate Baird had been washing slipped out of his hands and into the sink. He hadn't realized he had stopped scrubbing it. That nauseating twist in his gut felt like it was clawing up his throat. He had to take several deep breaths before he was calm enough to finish scrubbing the plate.

"So you think what happened to Amy might be related?"

Bernie shrugged, "Maybe, or it could be completely unrelated, I promise I'll let you know as soon as I know anything." She gave him a reassuring pat on the back.

"I hate waiting," he muttered.

"I know." She said sympathetically. During his years as a gear Baird always had something to do. Even if he couldn't contribute directly to a task he always had something to fix which he knew would be useful later, like Jack. Mostly Jack, he thought.

"Isn't there something I can do?" he asked restlessly.

"Officially, no, but that never stopped you before."

Baird smirked.

Bernie invited herself to stay the night with the promise of making breakfast in the morning. Baird was glad he had decided to take the next day off. He was scared to leave the kids alone, especially after what had happened at work. Plus, he wanted to actually sleep in for once. That didn't happen though. In the early morning hours Baird woke up to someone pounding on the door. Rolling off the couch - Bernie had taken his room with Amy - he trudged irritably to the door. Putting on his 'this had better be pretty friggen important' face he pulled open the door to reveal William.

"What?" Baird Barked

"There's been another death." He said nervously. "Several, actually. Alex and his whole family, they were slaughtered in their house this morning."

Baird sighed, "Alright, wait here." He closed the door and went to wake up Bernie.  
>"Hey Granny, wake up!" he hissed into his dark room.<p>

"What's the matter?" She grumbled groggily.

"We have a mystery on our hands."

"Can't it wait?"

"Sure, if you don't mind letting a serial killer wander around finding his next victim, then by all means, go back to sleep."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm getting up." There was movement in the dark and suddenly Bernie was before him, she pushed him out of the door way,

"I have to get dressed, get out."

In five minutes they were out the door with William leading the way.

The scene was pretty gruesome. Whoever it was seemed to be trying to compete with the locust, Baird thought, though it was still no contest. Several of Baird's clients were milling around discussing the scene. Since they had the most fire power in the little town then were the self appointed investigators of all crimes, especially crimes involving Baird's people.

"Looks like someone is targeting your employees" One of the farmers-gone-cop said to Baird.

"Looks like it," Baird agreed.

"We'll arrange protection for the rest, and we will catch whoever is doing this."

Baird nodded absently; he was watching Bernie examine the remains. Of all the people in the room Bernie probably knew her way around a corpse the best.

When she was done she motioned at him to follow her out.

"This looks like the same work as the gang. Tell me everything you know about this guy." She said when they were alone.

Baird shrugged, "I didn't really know him. You should ask June."

Bernie nodded "I will. In the mean time don't start anything new and set up a communication system with the rest of your crew that only they have access to and tell them to report anything suspicious."

"Yeah, alright," he agreed. He left Bernie to do whatever else she had to do and went to find the remaining members of his team. Setting up a com system just for them wouldn't be too complicated; it would only take him a few hours.

When he finally got back home he found Amy sitting on the couch by herself.

"Where are the kids?" he asked, not really expecting a reply.

"Bernie took them out." Amy said quietly.

"Oh," Baird sat down next to her.

"You didn't want to go?"

She shook her head. "What happened?"

"A guy from my team and his family were murdered." He said before thinking it might not be a good idea to tell her. It was too late though; she closed her eyes and shuddered.

"Yeah, my point exactly," he sighed. They sat in silence. It was times like these he wished he had a TV; he could barely stand talking to people he did know let alone this girl who could barely stand to be around him. Then again that was how most people seemed to feel about him, they usually just told him to go away. Amy muttered something that broke him out of this train of thought.

"What?" he asked.

"Thanks," she repeated staring fixedly at her lap, "for saving my life and keeping me safe."

"Oh," he said surprised. He wasn't use to being thanked, "yeah, you're welcome."

"I um, that is…I don't really have anywhere else to go, so…" She trailed off. It took Baird a full ten seconds to realize what she was trying to say.

"I'm not going to kick you out." He reassured her, "Not after all the trouble I went through."

"You might." She said dolefully, "I have to tell you something."

Baird was suddenly on high alert. _What have I gotten myself into this time?_

"Unless you're going to tell me that the locust are back and are trying to make you their new queen or something, it can't be that bad."

"Well besides that," she said with a slight smile, then she become serious. "They're never going to stop trying to get to me. Whoever that guy was who broke in knows where I am, he'll tell the others. They'll come after me."

Baird processed this for a few seconds.

"Why?" he said finally.

"Because I can lead you to them."

Alrighty then. I would like to thank my new beta reader teradanielle for being my beta, you should all thank her too because now my chapters should be more readable and generally better. And thanks to anyone who reviewed or even just read, you rock my toe socks.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey my faithfull readers, sorry this took so long, I really have no excuse, I've just been lazy. Hopefully I'll get it updated faster next time. I intend to try.

Chapter 6

Baird blinked.

"Well why didn't you say so? I'll go get my lancer." He stood up with the full intention to dig his gear out of the closet.

"No!" Amy shouted grabbing his arm then releasing it as if it was a thorny plant.

"What? You don't want me to hunt down a bunch of murdering rapist?" He said condescendingly.

"You can't," she said desperate to explain. "They're too strong. The man you rescued me from was an idiot compared to the rest."

"Yeah, I figured out that much." Baird said rolling his eyes. "Look, if you can tell me where they are then you'd better, or I'll just have to hunt them down myself."

"But, they'll know you're coming."

"So did the locust."

Amy was silent. She was curled up on the couch with her knees pulled against her chest. A defensive position, Baird noted, but also vulnerable. He could see that she was shaken by his reaction.

Well what did she expect? He was an ex-gear, it used to be his job to hunt down people like that, well mostly locust. Baird sighed and ran his fingers through his hair to calm himself.

"Will you at least tell me what they are doing? That guy I rescued you from said something about you being bought."

In the dim light her eyes glistened and Baird took an involuntary step back. He didn't do tears.

"Ok," She said her voice surprisingly even. She took a deep breath.

"They didn't kidnap me, although they kidnap plenty of girls. My father sold me to them, when I was 12. They paid him in alcohol and drugs." She stopped her face contorted in pain. Baird sat down next to her attempting to be a comforting presence the way Marcus did when the mood struck him. Amy took another deep breath and continued.

"They traffic sex slaves more or less, not just to any one though. They have a plan to repopulate the planet with their people. You know the new world order kind of thing. I don't know the details exactly but they pick out certain women based on some criteria and I guess I fit the bill. Then they sell us to their supporters who are the most loyal to the cause. They pay outrageous prices for the honor to have their offspring be part of the new world order that they themselves probably won't live to see. That's the gist of it anyhow; I think it's a little more complicated than that. They don't really sell us to them, they lease us. The men can do whatever they want with us, short of killing us, until we get pregnant. Then the lease runs out and they take us back, wait until we give birth, and then lease us out again. I don't know what they do with the babies." She shrugged and fell silent. Baird didn't know what to say except that Bernie was right about it being more than just rape. He didn't say that though, like the idiot that he was he said what he probably shouldn't.

"How many kids have you had?" He blurted out. Then he flinched, if Bernie had been the she probably would have skinned him. Amy sighed with relief to his surprise.

"None thankfully, I mean," She amended, "I wouldn't mind having kids but not like that."

Baird nodded, although he wondered if she had said that because she didn't want him to think she didn't like "his" kids or if it stemmed from some personal belief, or maybe something else.

"That man was the first, he was a scum bag. The only reason he got me was because he's a cowardly brownnoser. He tied me to a rusty pole. I was able to break it and run otherwise…" She trailed off.

"So you won't tell me who they are because?"

"You won't like it," She said.

"Is that it? You want to spare my feelings? I don't care who they are, I'll kill anyone who would sell woman as sex toys." Baird ranted, "figgin disgusting!"

"Even if they are your friends?"

Baird snorted, "Especially if they are my friends."

"Alright," She said in defeat but before she could continue there was the sound of the lock being turned and Bernie and the kids bustled in.

Jacob and Kaylee rushed past Baird and Amy to their room. June nodded to Baird and smiled at Amy on his way to the kitchen. Bernie stood in front of them, her motherly façade fading.

"Is your name Amy Woods?" Bernie asked. Amy nodded.

"Thought so, I've been doing some investigating, and I came across your name. Looks like the same people who had you are the people I'm looking for. I need you to tell me everything."

"She already told me everything; she was just about to tell me who these guys are so I can go carve them to pieces."

Bernie shook her head. "I'm afraid it's not that simple Baird. This gang is spread almost all over Sera but the reason they are so quiet here is because this town is their head quarters. This is where they operate from."

"So you're saying that the mayor is the leader."

Bernie shrugged "I don't know but we have to assume he at least knows."

"No," Amy said "he doesn't know. They make sure he is completely in the dark. That's why they killed you're workers."

Baird's gut sank, he felt sick as a sudden realization struck him.

"It's the farmers isn't it?" He said.

"Some maybe but not the one's I know, not the leader," Amy said Bernie nodded.

"No, looks like the farmers are unaware of it. You don't have to worry about your employees."

Well that was a relief in its own way Baird thought but there was still plenty of problems to deal with.

"I don't get it," he said, "why are their head quarters here? This has to be the most out of the way place in the whole friggen world, except maybe Anvagad. Wouldn't they put it somewhere they could keep in contact with the rest of the gang, somewhere a little more strategic?"

"Make's sense to put it in the last place where we would look if they didn't want to get caught."

"Not really." Baird muttered. "They had to know that we would figure it out eventually."

"True, but not before we'd wasted effort and more importantly time on looking in the obvious places first, and they would be able to see us coming." she said.

"They've probably cleared out by now."

"I don't know, maybe, but I don't think anyone knew I was here until today." Bernie said, "In any case we need to figure this out fast and take these buggers out before they evacuate."

Baird nodded, "Alright, now can I get my lancer."

"Go ahead," Bernie said. Baird got up.

"Wait!" For the second time that day Amy grabbed his arm, but she didn't let go. "You can't, you'll be killed!"

She was trembling, tears streamed down her face. She was desperate to stop them from going. Baird was about ready to smack her silly. Luckily Bernie stepped in.

"It's alright sweetheart, this is what we do. We are going to get these guys so you never have to worry about them again."

Amy stared wide eyed at Bernie but her grip loosened.

"Be careful," she whispered.

Finally Baird could go get his stuff, he stalked to his room where he kept it but then suddenly stopped remembering something.

"Oh wait, I'm going to need a baby sitter. June is good but better not take any chances," Baird decided picking up the com system he had rigged especially if he ever made a comeback. He smiled, it was time to remind the world why they needed him. When he turned it on there was already a lively one sided conversation going on.

"Hey Cole," He interrupted. There was a pause.

"Damon baby is that you?" Cole said.

"Yeah it's me, think you can do me a favor?"


End file.
